Van der Sar turns 40 on Friday and if he plays against Tottenham at the weekend he will become only the ninth player to appear in the Premier League having started his fifth decade, and the first foreign player to do so.

His future remains uncertain, and Van der Sar may yet retire at the end of the season, but he is hungry for even more success and hopes to help the club secure a record 19th league title and a fourth European Cup.

"We want to get the Premier League title back, that's for sure," Van der Sar said in the Daily Mirror. "We narrowly missed out last season, although we had loads of injuries and lost too many games.

"I think that's the priority. And of course we went out of Europe too early last season, so that has to be one of the focus points. When I was younger, I thought maybe I would finish in my mid-30s, but that's a normal time to be thinking about it when you are younger and for players at this level.

"That would have been the obvious time to finish, but I only came to United late in my career and maybe that's why I'm still enjoying it."